Massage Chair Industry Update (Video & Transcripts) – 11/05/12

Alan: Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com‘ and today is our bi-weekly massage chair industry update and today is November 5th, 2012 and we’re going to get right into stock again as usual.

[SCREEN TEXT: Christmas Coming – Order Sooner Rather Than Later]

Alan: Well, before I begin I should just say, as I’ve mentioned in the last couple of updates, we’re getting close to Christmas time. And Christmas time, the tail-end of November and all of December are extremely busy in the massage chair business, so I’m just going to warn you, if you don’t order soon, you’re going to be left picking up the pieces of whatever colors and whatever models are available toward – as we get closer toward Christmas – so if you’re interested in a massage chair for Christmas I would order it now. Some places, we’re about 7 to 10 days out for shipping and so you’d be getting your chair toward the middle, end of November if you order now, some of them, depending on where you are located in the country. But after Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers start to dwindle pretty bad because that’s a very busy weekend for massage chair shopping. So, if you’re going to be getting a chair for Christmas or for the holidays, I would strongly encourage you to get something soon, so you don’t run out of options when the time crunch hits.

[SCREEN TEXT: New Osaki OS-7075R Chair – Replacing the OS-7000]

Alan: All right, back orders, OK. Now, I told you that the Osaki OS-7075R is the new model they’re bringing out, and that is the same as the Osaki 7000, except with foot rollers, and the motor that runs the rollers with more horsepower, so a little bit more, a little even more, even stronger rollers than the 7000 had. Well, the 7075 is now in stock and it’s available, we should be having it on our website soon. My web guy, he’s a little behind, he’s slacking on me, but the 7075 is available, you can call me if it’s not on the website when you hear this, and you can just give me a call at 801-651-2026, 801-651-2026 and you can place that order with us. It’s regularly $4295, we have a $500 off special, which brings it down to $3795. Now, the colors of the 7075 are all in stock. And the Osaki 7000, they are going to be discontinuing that model, so as the colors disappear and I understand that the ‘Dark Brown’ and the ‘Ivory’ are already out, so there’s just ‘Taupe’ and ‘Black’ that are available in the Osaki 7000. Once those colors are all gone, that chair will be discontinued, so FYI.

[SCREEN TEXT: Lots of Massage Chairs in Stock NOW!]

Alan: All the Human Touch chairs are in stock, the 9500 which was out of stock a couple weeks ago is now in stock now, and everything else in Human Touch’s stock, inventory is in. Inada’s also in, Panasonic’s also in, Infinite Therapeutics’ stock is in, Omega’s in, there’s lots of stock for everything right now, it’s a great time to be buying. Let’s see, what else can I tell you, oh you know, I’ve written some blog posts lately. Some of them, I think, are pretty good information, I get asked a lot about if it’s OK to sleep in your massage chair, so I wrote a blog post about sleeping in a massage chair, and if that’s good or not. I also wrote an article about, in response to a reader’s question of whether zero gravity helps neck and shoulder issues, and I wrote about that in my blog, and you can check that out as well.

[SCREEN TEXT: Massage Chair History Series]

Alan: But what I really wanted to mention, which I thought was pretty doggone cool is, I came across a three-part YouTube video series by a guy named Peter Barakan, who’s a reporter for NHK World News, which I believe is a Japanese news agency, but with English speakers for those of us that don’t speak Japanese. And he talked about, it was a story, a documentary on the history of the massage chair. And of course, I’d always heard that – you know, you hear certain things, when you’re in the industry, you hear certain things and you take them for gospel truth – and one of the things I heard was that Inada made the first massage chair in 1962.

Well apparently, a fellow who is a sewing machine parts business owner in Osaka, Japan, his name is Niichi Kawahara, he invented the first massage chair in 1950. And it was – he built it for his daughter, who is still alive, his daughter’s name is Kazumi – and she had, quote-unquote, very bad knots in her shoulders and he wanted to help her out so he figured ‘How can I take my knowledge in the sewing machine parts business and transpose those and translate that in to a massage chair or something to help my daughter with her knots in her shoulders?’ Well apparently, it took him four to five years of trial and error before he finally came up with this wooden – it looks kind of like an electric chair when you look at the picture of it in the videos – and by the way, I wrote a blog post about this just earlier today, so you can go on there and see the three videos and a little, a couple of tidbits. If you have any comments about the videos, please feel free to add them in our blog, we love comments, but I thought you might find this interesting.

Well, he made this, this chair for his daughter – and like I said, it kind of looks like an old-fashioned electric chair, like you see on The Green Mile, that movie The Green Mile and it’s very rudimentary and very primitive compared to what we have today. But I thought the story was fascinating, and from that became this obsession in Japan, this was in Japan, but from that became this obsession with massage chairs in Japan, to the point where almost every home and every bathhouse has massage chairs and it’s become a very, very important, functional part of the society in Japan, and I’ve heard this before. I’ve heard people, I mean, the Anglos that have lived over there and have come back to the United States and said ‘Well, I lived in Japan, everybody has a massage chair, I’ve got to get a massage chair,’ well, I have heard that before.

And I thought one of the things that was kind of cool about one of the subsequent chair models to this one was they had like, big iron wheels on the side, kind of like a – I don’t know, like a steering wheel or a wheel that you turn to shut a big valve, and they used that to raise the rollers up and down the back, and the rollers – there was nothing between the rollers and the back except the shirt of the person who was sitting on the chair. It was these big, old rollers right up against the back and just going up and down, and then they came out with another chair that did thumping. So, you couldn’t get a chair that combined the thumping and the kneading, there was one chair for thumping, or what they called ‘pummeling,’ and another chair that they used for kneading, and was rolling up and on the spine. It wasn’t until I think the 60s, when they combined the two and started creating, you know, something a little bit more progressive, and something a little bit more unified in the massage chair industry, and I just loved it.

And I found that Inada was the first one to integrate the optical sensors for body scanning. I also found that Fujiiryoki, which is not really a very popular brand here in the United States, and the people that distribute it here kind of mix it with Chinese chairs, and it gets a little gray and foggy when you try to figure out what chair is a true Fujiiryoki chair. But anyway, they came out with the first pneumatic massage chair function, which basically means it was the first one that came out with airbags, and so it was really fascinating to see how this, the progression of this amazing massage chair industry, started from this small, little beginning in 1950, and some man’s sewing machine parts factory, to today where massage chairs are popular, and used in many, many homes throughout the world, I just found it fantastic. And if you want see those three videos, just go to my blog dated today November 5th, and you’ll see the three there and I think you’ll really enjoy it, each of them are about eight to nine, 10 minutes long, so you’re looking at about 25 to 30 minutes of viewing time but very, very enjoyable, especially if you’re kind of a massage chair nut, buff like I am. I really enjoyed this, so enjoy that for what it’s worth and leave any comments if you have them.

[SCREEN TEXT: New Infinite Therapeutics Chair Coming Soon!]

Alan: I think that is just about it for updates in the massage chair industry. Oh I heard that – if you’ll remember we had a conversation with Jim Coppins, who’s the vice president at Infinite Therapeutics a few weeks back and I talked and that, and he mentioned in that interview that they were coming out with a new chair, probably before Christmas, before the Christmas rush – and I learned a little bit more about the chair. There’s supposed to be more information coming out on it this week, but what I have learned about it is that it is going to be very similar in design to the IT-7800, which is their lowest-price chair and it’s going to have zero gravity, airbags, and some other features that you don’t find on a low-cost chair. It’s going to be priced around the same price, mid-2000s, as the Osaki 4000 and 3000. So, it’s going to be a mid to upper-2000 price-point, and then so they will have the 7800, which is under $2000. Then they will have this new IT chair and I don’t know what the number’s going to be, or the model number’s going to be, but it will be between 2 and 3 [thousand], and then they will have the 8200 and the 8500, which are very, very popular chairs with us and those are in the over 3 or the low 3s [thousands]. So, it looks like they are going to coming out with this new chair and I’ll have more information on it, I suspect pretty quick and I will let you know as soon as I know more about it.

But I think that is about it right now in the massage chair world. I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com’ and I hope you’ve enjoyed this massage chair industry update. If you’ve liked what we’ve shared with you today, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, and get updated on any other videos that we send out. We usually send out one to two a week. If you like us, you can also ‘Like’ us on Facebook and ‘Share’ us with your friends, or on Twitter. We really appreciate things like that and we love spreading the word about massage chairs. And if you have any questions, you can feel free to call me at 801-651-2026, that’s my personal cell number and I always answer it. I don’t know how many times a week I get the phone ringing and I pick up and I go, ”Massage-Chair-Relief, this is Dr. Weidner,’ and then there’s this pause on the other end of the line, and then people will say ‘Oh my gosh, you actually do answer your phone, just like you say you do.’ Yes, I do. They are expecting a voicemail or some kind of recording, but it’s not a recording, it’s me and I would love to be able to visit with you and answer any questions that you might have about massage chairs, about the purchase process, about characteristics, comparables, anything. If there’s anything you need help with in the massage chair buying process, feel free to call me. I’m always here and of course, if you buy the chair from us, all the better. But I am a resource here available to you no matter where you get the chair from or what chair you buy. If I know anything about it, I will answer your questions for you. Thanks so much for visiting with us today. We’ll see you in a couple more weeks. Bye bye.

President of Massage Chair Relief, Dr. Weidner is a leading expert in the massage chair industry. His articles, videos, interviews, website, and industry updates have become the resources of choice for those researching which massage chair is best for them.